The pre-eminent role of the armed forces in Brazil's recent past is well known, but their place throughout the country's history is much less explored by the literature in English. This collection of 17 essays provides an excellent sample of the ‘new military history’ of Brazil. Pedro Puntoni takes a fresh look at the art of war during the first two centuries of colonisation, including the incorporation of non-European soldiers and indigenous practices. Not only wars of conquest, but also the defence of the colony against the Dutch were initially delegated to irregular troops headed by the wealthiest white landowners, formally responsible to the governors of each capitania. After 1640 the so-called Brazilian art of war (guerra brasílica) consisted of a combination of regular troops and militias (including regiments of freed slaves and Indians) that did not respect European rules of war, but stood out for its cruelty, such as the slaughter of prisoners. The relationship between militia commanders and the colonial administration is examined in more detail by Christiane de Mello for eighteenth-century Minas Gerais. She provides details of how the Crown and its governors intended to enlist for the militias all adult males, and even one fifth of the healthy slaves, whereas the landowners and the poor free population tried to avoid service through all kinds of artifices. Shirley Nigeria focuses on deserters in colonial Pará, who were rarely the ‘wretched delinquents’ denounced by the administration, but rather hard-working family heads. Many deserted only when they found that military service became incompatible with their agricultural tasks. Deserters led clandestine lives within the colonial society or took refuge with maroon groups in the rainforests. Fábio Mendes explores the same issue during the Empire. Not that much changed: the army, who lost every year about 25 per cent of its ranks due to death, desertion or end of service, still went to great pains to refill its ranks. Military service was perceived as ‘an extreme form of social degradation’ and avoided by all means. A desperate police chief listed one hundred different types of exemption granted by the legislation, from marriage and single sons to the exercise of professions considered essential, not to mention clientelistic structures that allowed many to escape if they sought the protection of the powerful. Recruitment was thus a major reason for the nomadism of the free poor population. Paloma Fonseca examines a prison-ship anchored in the port of Rio de Janeiro during the years 1830–31. The former Príncípe Real, used for the transfer of the Portuguese royal family to Brazil, was trans-formed into a presiganga (derived from the English term press gang) where hundreds of men were incarcerated. They left the ship during the day for forced labour in the dockyard. Mistreatment and appalling living conditions made it a symbol of barbarous punishment that needed to be abolished.
Another continuity with the colonial past is the subject of Adriana de Souza's contribution. She demonstrates that until the 1840s Portuguese-born generals occupied half of the high ranks of the Brazilian army. Most of the generals of the Empire were sons of commissioned or militia officers, who had entered the army as cadets. They then followed one of three career paths: as combatants, technicians (mainly engineers) or administrators. Vitor Izeckson studies the recruitment of some 139,000 soldiers during the Paraguayan War (1865–70) in Rio de Janeiro province. Initially the National Guard militia was asked to contribute with volunteers to supplement the relatively small standing army. But drawing on the National Guard fuelled conflicts between justices of the peace, commanders and landowners, because it clashed with the traditional political bargaining between local elites and the Imperial state. When the voluntary enlistment of free men was insufficient, the authorities resorted to other means, mainly recruiting slaves who were emancipated before being shipped to the front. Slave owners, asked to contribute to the patriotic effort, took advantage of the situation to sell unwanted slaves to the nation. In that respect the province does not fit into Tilly's theory according to which wars strengthen states. The military occupation of Paraguay by the Brazilian army in 1869–76, and its absolute superiority over Argentine forces stationed there, transformed the former enemy into a de facto protectorate of the Empire. Paraguayan political factions could only prosper with its support. Francisco Doratioto examines the alliances and conflicts between the Brazilian plenipotentiary, the Brazilian military commanders and the Paraguayan actors.
The everyday life of soldiers in Bahia during the Second Empire is the focus of Hendrik Kraay's chapter. Disciplinary issues were, of course, a prime worry of officers, as revealed by archival sources. Regulations such as an 1859 decree tried to regulate physical punishment and the 1874 recruitment law abolished it altogether in the army, at least in theory. Yet discipline was a much more multifaceted social relation, and in garrisons located in the city of Salvador it consisted of complex negotiations between officers and rank-and-file soldiers. The latter used all possible means to reconcile service with their private life, from their family relations to defending their honour in the streets. Peter Beattie uses nineteen military inquiries into accusations of sodomy to deal with a theme that has remained taboo for a long time. He shows that until the First World War barracks were a ‘suspicious social space’, where the state tried to isolate all kinds of dangerous individuals from the rest of the society and in particular from family homes. His material confirms the regularity of homosexual relations, in particular between older sailors and younger apprentices in the Navy, as already described in the novel Bom Crioulo by Adolfo Caminha (1895). Military life promoted hyper-masculinity, which encouraged violent confrontations and the assertion of sexual conquest of both women and men. The everyday life of the Imperial Marines is also examined by Álvaro Nascimento, who again emphasises sexual violence between men, but also drinking, gaming and fighting with men enlisted in other corporations as the main disciplinary offences. The Republic (1889) sought to gain support by abolishing physical punishment but also formalised repression against what was euphemistically called ‘libertinism’. Navy officers, however, were convinced that it was impossible to impose discipline without resorting to physical punishment, which was thus re-introduced and became a major bone of contention between officers and rank-and-file, culminating in the famous ‘Revolt against the whip’ of 1910, when rebellious marines took over warships anchored in the harbour of Rio de Janeiro and threatened to shell the city. Three as yet unknown rebellions by soldiers against the new republic are examined by Celso Castro. Since a high percentage of soldiers in the army and even more in the navy were of African ancestry, it comes as no surprise that Princess Isabel the Redeemer who signed the ‘Golden Law’ that abolished slavery, was extremely popular among the lower ranks, in contrast with so many officers who sympathised with republican ideals. Hence the coup that established the Republic can no longer be seen as a peaceful transition.
Cesar Campiani Maximiano provides us with a fascinating account of the experience Brazilian soldiers had on the Italian front during the Second World War. Since many middle-class soldiers used all possible tricks to escape from being sent to the theatre of war, the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (FEB) was mainly made up of lower-class men. These 25,000 soldiers – representing as much as a third of the Brazilian army – were ill-prepared for the winter conditions in the Italian mountains. As a result, many survivors suffered from long-term effects of their traumatic experiences, as can be seen from the high number of post-war suicides. Francisco Ferraz examines the fate of FEB veterans in Brazilian society. Initial recognition quickly faded. The press celebrated the ‘troops of democracy’ that were expected to contribute towards the democratisation of the country, but precisely for that reason the authoritarian generals of the high command made sure that the FEB troops were prevented from making any political comment, and were rapidly demobilised on their return. The reception in the barracks was thus rather chilly; FEB officers – most of whom actually supported Vargas – were sent to distant locations and no effort was made to capitalise on their war experience. The government did not manage to provide significant assistance and the few benefits veterans were granted were then extended to all the military. Ironically, only after the end of the military dictatorship did the remaining 5,000 veterans receive significant material recognition for their patriotic sacrifice.
Shawn Smallman questions the view that torture of political opponents during the military regime was due to the army's lack of professionalism. He argues that the army had already used extra-legal violence against its own internal dissidents, most prominently after the rebellions of 1910 and 1935. In the years before the coup, nationalist officers and soldiers were victims of violent repression, in particular during April and May 1952, when the high command eliminated them from the leadership of the Clube Militar, and implemented another anti-communist purge in the armed forces. The officers of the Cruzada Democrática took over military intelligence, which later became the infamous SNI. After the coup this extra-legal violence was extended to all civil society in order to consolidate the power of the generals. Renato Lemos revisits the issue of why the military regime allowed the judiciary to maintain some of its independence. Criticising the view that it served only as a democratic smokescreen, he shows the struggle between different factions within the two highest courts responsible for judging the most political cases: the Federal Supreme Court (STF) and the Military Supreme Court (STM). Only when the composition of the STF was changed, with the Second Institutional Act (AI-2), did it issue judgements that complied with the military's aims. And whereas the military courts of first instance that ruled on the infamous ‘political-military inquiries’ (IPM) were dominated by young, authoritarian officers, the STM tended to be more moderate and often reduced penalties or dismissed cases on formalities.
Maria Celina d'Araújo looks at how the Brazilian military started to incorporate women whilst still maintaining an absolute ban on open homosexuality among its ranks. A proposal to abolish article 235 of the 1967 Military Code, that stipulates punishment for ‘libertine’ practices, did not pass in Congress. Since 1980 the Navy has recruited women to work as technical and administrative staff, and in 1982 the first cohort of women officers graduated in the Air Force. However, a project to train women for the firearms service was abandoned in 2002. As in many other countries, the perception that women and homosexuals are unfit for war persists among the Brazilian high command.
